Former world champion triple jumper Phillips Idowu has been banned from
driving for two years and ordered to complete 50 hours' community service
after pleading guilty to drink-driving.

Phillips Idowu, the former triple jump world champion, has been banned from driving for two years and ordered to complete 50 hours of unpaid community work after pleading guilty to driving over the legal drink limit.

Chelmsford magistrates heard on Monday that Idowu, 34, was more than 2½ times over the limit when he was stopped by police at 9am on Sept 20. He was driving a Range Rover near his home in Epping, Essex.

Police smelled alcohol on his breath and he later recorded a reading of 96 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 35.

Idowu’s solicitor, Jo Life, said the athlete had been out drinking with friends the night before and had not planned to be driving so early in the morning.

She told the court that “there were circumstances that required Mr Idowu to leave the home” but added that the athlete did not want to go into detail.

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Life said: “He [Idowu] said there was a hotel at the end of the road and he needed to stay away from the house to get away from the circumstances that had arisen”.

A spokesman for Essex Police said after the case: “We were called to reports of a domestic argument at a property shortly before 9.30am. A man had left the scene prior to police arriving and was subsequently arrested.”

Life said Idowu fully accepted he would lose his driving licence, which would have “a considerable effect on him” because of the amount of driving he did performing charitable work and visiting schools.

Idowu, who won silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and gold at the World Championships in Berlin in 2009, announced in July that he was taking a break from athletics “for the foreseeable future” to pursue other interests.

The court was told that Idowu intended to embark on a new business opportunity that meant he would be leaving the country at the end of November.

Idowu, who had no previous convictions and was described as being of “very good character”, agreed to attend a drink-drive rehabilitation course in return for a six-month reduction in his driving ban.

As well as being ordered to carry out 50 hours of community work, he was fined £65 and ordered to pay £80 costs.